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Three of these are good. This page compares the product you can use today, Applye Desktop, and the one overlap none of them covers: a local-first desktop GUI, free, that knows the paperwork differs from country to country. A Career Intelligence web platform is in development and is not one of these columns yet.
Applye Desktop: a local-first GUI, free, that knows the paperwork differs from country to country. The web platform is not available yet.
You want polish, reminders and a phone in your pocket.
Your job search lives in their cloud, on a subscription.
You are a developer who already lives in an AI coding CLI.
Terminal only, and no per-market paperwork logic.
You are tracking five roles and want zero setup.
Everything after "applied" is manual work.
11 differences
| Feature | Applye | Cloud SaaS | career-ops (CLI) | Spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, MIT | $9-40 / month | Free, MIT | Free |
| Where your data lives | Desktop: local SQLite on your machine | Their cloud | Local files | Cloud (usually) |
| Interface | Desktop app (GUI) | Web app | Terminal + AI coding CLI | Grid of cells |
| Audience | Everyone | Everyone | Developers | Everyone |
| AI cost model | Your own keys or CLI subscription, opt-in per call | Bundled into the subscription | Your CLI subscription | None |
| JD legitimacy check | Deterministic, 0 tokens | Varies | AI-based | Manual |
| CV tailoring | Multi-pass, you review every change | Yes | Yes (ATS PDF) | Manual |
| Auto-apply | Never, by principle | Some do | Never | No |
| Local paperwork (visa, DE Eigenbemühungen, per-market CV norms) | First-class | No | No | Manual |
| Open source | Yes | No | Yes | n/a |
| Works offline | Yes, core loop is 0-token | No | Partly | Partly |